This invention relates generally to the determination of material physical properties such as Young's modulus, and more particularly involves certain improvements to apparatus and methods covered in U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,573 to Madigosky et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Several disadvantages or problems have arisen in the use of the apparatus disclosed in the Madigosky et al. patent, involving the requirement for constant and prolonged services of an experienced operator familiar with specialized equipment, such as the fast Fourier transform spectrum analyzer, to make measurements and manually perform data analysis and calculations. Such requirement of the apparatus leads, of course, to operator dependent errors.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to upgrade electronic collection of data in systems for determining physical properties of test specimens of material derived from measurements of acoustically induced vibrations imparted to such specimens and automating analysis of the collected measurement data.
An additional object of the invention in accordance with the foregoing object is to provide for easier and more rapid data processing, with less likelihood of resultant calculation errors from input of measurements derived from elongated bar-shaped specimens undergoing mechanical resonance vibrations in the kHz region over a wide temperature range.